Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

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trogonpete
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Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by trogonpete »

I haven't posted in a couple years, but I have some cool pictures/species from a short trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua last month. There are great pictures of ordinary species and crappy pictures of great species; this seems to be how I roll [plus a few feathered herps]. I hauled along my wife and three kids [ages 6, 4 and 2] and we stayed in non-herpy places for much of the time, splitting our herping time with birding, so the haul is a bit thin by CR standards. But we were there at an exciting time and it was a blast.

La Selva Biological Station
First stop: La Selva. We stayed there 3 years ago and it's a phenomenal place. We stayed for four nights [which pretty much cleaned us out--La Selva is not a budget option]. We were lucky enough to arrive on the day that the rainy season really started; we had 6 inches of rain in the first two days. The first night, I found this little guy in the leaf litter just as the rain started:

Enulius sclateri: white-headed snake.
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I clicked a safety shot and went to grab my second flash... and the snake vanished. I never found it again. Missed opportunities ended up being a theme for this trip. Cool little snake in any case.

On our 2009 visit, Cantarana swamp was quiet and unproductive, but on our first night this time we saw quite a few frogs there. We have a 4'x3' print on our wall of a red-eyed tree frog from our 2009 trip and it has become somewhat iconic for our kids. So having a boardwalk through a swamp with dozens of these guys visible was awesome.

My 6 year old with an amplecting pair of red-eyes that she found on the boardwalk.
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The ubiquitous hourglass tree frog:
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I haven't checked the ID of this guy yet:
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I brought along a versatile but cumbersome custom flash setup designed with glass frogs in mind. It ended up being super useful for other species as well, though it was too cumbersome for active species [I'm working on it...]. You'll be able to easily tell which pictures were shot with the full setup and which are single-flash jobs.

Another hourglass tree frog:
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On the second night, after 24 hours of torrential rain, we went out to the swamp as a family:
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We ran into a fellow herper named Rich [here's a shoutout man--get in touch, I'd love to see your pics] who had just seen a sweet-looking but unrecognizable snake. He tracked it down again and we got a good look--but in the hard rain [really, it was flat out pouring] I foolishly decided not to pull out my real lighting gear [which, after all, I had actually water-proofed]. This is why I have only one poor shot of certainly the coolest snake I've ever seen:

Ungaliophis panamensis: Panamanian dwarf boa
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Apparently this is a canopy boa that is plausibly common but very rarely seen [a total of 9 dots in all of CR in the La Selva guide]. My guess is that the violent weather knocked it to the ground and Rich got super-lucky and stumbled upon it, and in turn we got super-lucky and bumped into Rich soon thereafter.

My wife spotted a yellow blunt-headed vine snake [Imantodes inornatus] and I finally got to try out my lighting on a snake, albeit a fairly ordinary one:
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Alright, enough of that. I've got tons more but you get the idea.

On the third night, I rented a bike and rode miles of trail scanning for snakes without a single thing [besides this, which I haven't looked up yet:]
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I bush-whacked up and down several small streams looking for glass frogs but struck out. As a last resort, I finally went back to the swamp and it was freaking ALIVE. It really lived up to the name Cantarana. There were thousands of frogs calling, at least a dozen species, and I found amplecting pairs of several different species of tree frogs right along the boardwalk. It was almost bewildering trying to pick a single target, but it was so late that I didn't spend tons of time there [gotta wake up early for the birds, you know].

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On the fourth night is when things got really, really interesting. I went back to the swamp to see if the frog orgy was still in full swing and it was surprisingly quiet. But right away I saw a cat-eyed snake [which is special to me as the snake that got me into snakes in 2009] eating red-eyed tree frog eggs, as they do:
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Then a fantastically gorgeous Sibon nebulata JUST out of range:
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Then an annulated tree boa [Corallus annulatus] high in a tree over the swamp.
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Then another yellow blunt-headed vine snake. Then yet another cat-eyed snake and yet another tree boa. If you're counting, that's 6 snakes in 50 feet of boardwalk in about 15 minutes, most of them gorging themselves silly on frog eggs. I watched the first cat-eyed snake--4 feet from me--pause from gulping eggs only long enough to swallow the female red-eye that had laid them, then go back vigorously to the eggs. It was a flat-out bonanza.

I stayed for hours trying to get an angle on the Sibon but it ultimately retreated up a tree. The photographer in me is pissed but it's hard to be too mad after having such an incredible evening full of excellent snakes.

We bussed/boated to Tortuguero for a few days. The surrounding area is apparently great for herps but we had no way of getting into the rainforest at night. So whatever we saw is what you can get from a boat:

Green basilisk [Basiliscus plumifrons].
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Sorry for the laziness... I haven't looked this up yet either:
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Spectcled caiman. This is one my daughter dubbed "Laman," the brother of "Raymond" who we met in La Selva and "Damon" who we met later in Tortuguero.
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We bussed up to Nicaragua and spent a few days on Ometepe. Due to the islandness of Ometepe island it is very low on herps [tons of cane toads mostly]. During a hike to the San Ramon waterfall we were lucky enough to spot this guy up in the canopy--we were on the side of a steep river gorge so he was only 20 feet above us despite being probably 60 feet up his tree:
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I'm puzzled by the ID. Nothing that matches this is in the standard lists of Ometepe snakes, though Ometepe is very poorly censused. Any help with this would be great.

That's it for herps, but I'll dump a couple bird pictures for those of us who are into that type of thing:

Collared aracari, La Selva:
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White-necked jacobin, La Selva:
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White-collared swift, Ometepe:
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MichaelCravens
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by MichaelCravens »

That was great! My girlfriend and I both love central America and with our first child on the way, it pleases me to see a family out enjoying a dark, wet, jungle together...gives me hope that my hardcore field herping days are not behind me just yet. Plans are already in the works to try and move down there for a year or two as a family. Stunning photos btw. I'd be interested to hear more about the lighting set up you used on that Yellow blunt-headed Snake. Thanks for a great post!

Your turtle is a black river turtle Rhinoclemmys

Michael Cravens
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moloch
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by moloch »

Beautiful photos! I hope to be at La Selva in August so this was very interesting to me. Loved the shot of the egg-eating Cat-eyed Snake. I hope that my friends and I can find a few of the animals that you encountered.

Regards,
David
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Very nice!
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Dr. Dark
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Dr. Dark »

Wow...for part-time herping on vacation, you pretty well killed it! Some GREAT snake species...the Ungaliophis is awesome! Your unidentified snake looks to be Pseustes poecilonotus...flat head, yellow venter with faint evidence of yellow streaks up the sides.
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Steve Atkins
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Steve Atkins »

Awesome post with great shots. I love the basilisk picture.

What kind of lighting were you using on the Blunt headed vine snake? Those shots came out wonderful.

You said you have a lot more pictures, I'd love to see them
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Brian Folt
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Brian Folt »

Pete,

Beautiful images. Your kids are very lucky to have such a phenomenal experience!

I too have visited the La Selva Cantarana during torrential downpours at the start of the wet season.... and also was awed. While some of your animals are common sights during such nights, the Ungaliophis is rare find indeed! I'm jealous.

That first un-IDed frog is Craugastor megacephalus. This species has declined in abundance at La Selva, and the Cantarana area is one of the few places it reliably is seen anymore (assuming you found it there?). Your Sibon "nebulata" appears to be Sibon longifrenis. Also, the un-IDed animal from the third night is a litter toad (Rhaebo haematiticus).
Reptiluvr
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Reptiluvr »

I always enjoy Central American posts. The photo of Imantodes inornatus with the blue-blurred tongue is extraordinary! You nerd a poster of that shot in your house now too. You're quite lucky to have an adventurous family. I hope I have such fortune in te future.
trogonpete
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by trogonpete »

Thanks everybody for the great responses, I love this community. Also, thanks for the many ID helps.

Lighting gear:
I have two off-camera flashes [SB-600's] and I have a series of attachments that fit snugly onto the ends of the flashes [made almost entirely of duct tape, cereal boxes and aluminum foil]. For these shots I use one that is essentially a small soft box and for the other I use a single-strand fiber to create a very small beam. To minimize light loss the flash is initially compressed into the fiber using a reflector from an old bike light. The fiber is 1/8" and you can see the benefits particularly in the first and last vine snake pictures [hind-lighting and spot-lighting, respectively]. Overall I spent about $4 combined on the attachments. The soft box was destroyed by rain but the fiber one is doing great.

Michael: congrats on the impending baby! The awesome thing about kids is that everything is awesome to them. My 4-year-old never tired of finding strawberry poison-dart frogs and my 6-year-old would pick up a bothrops if she had the chance [so we make sure she doesn't have a chance...].

Dr Dark: I hadn't considered that... it sure looks different from the Pseustes poecilontus we saw in La Selva. I tentatively agree... Here's a link for a larger picture http://pandalewis.smugmug.com/photos/i- ... zWr-XL.jpg. Any body else concur? I suppose it wouldn't be surprising to find this snake on Ometepe even if it hasn't been officially observed there.

Brian: the Craugastor looks exactly right. Yes, this guy was on the far side of Cantarana swamp about 20 feet in elevation and 40 feet horizontally from the water edge. Thanks for all the ID help... I've never even heard of Sibon longifrenis.

thanks everybody!
John Andermann
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by John Andermann »

trogonpete wrote: Dr Dark: I hadn't considered that... it sure looks different from the Pseustes poecilontus we saw in La Selva. I tentatively agree... Here's a link for a larger picture http://pandalewis.smugmug.com/photos/i- ... zWr-XL.jpg. Any body else concur? I suppose it wouldn't be surprising to find this snake on Ometepe even if it hasn't been officially observed there.
Senticolis?
trogonpete
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by trogonpete »

John Andermann wrote:Senticolis?
That looks exactly right to me--Senticolis triapsis. It's kind of weird that I lived in Tucson for 20 years and I see this first in Nicaragua.

thanks!
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Dr. Dark
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Dr. Dark »

I thought maybe Senticolis too but the fact it was 60 feet up in the canopy makes that less likely as they are primarily terrestrial.
trogonpete
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by trogonpete »

Dr. Dark wrote:I thought maybe Senticolis too but the fact it was 60 feet up in the canopy makes that less likely as they are primarily terrestrial.
This paper http://www.herpconbio.org/Volume_4/Issu ... m_2009.pdf has the quote: "Although Stebbins (2003) suggests that Green Ratsnakes are strongly arboreal, other workers disagree." The paper went on to show that the tagged snakes in Arizona were strictly non-arboreal. Other papers seems confused on the issue.
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chrish
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by chrish »

Excellent stuff. Great photos.

I might suggest another couple of posts are in order:

- one on the image lab demonstrating and discussing your lighting rig more fully
- one on the birding forum so we won't have to dig through all the frog shots to see the birds! :lol:
trogonpete wrote:
Dr. Dark wrote:I thought maybe Senticolis too but the fact it was 60 feet up in the canopy makes that less likely as they are primarily terrestrial.
This paper http://www.herpconbio.org/Volume_4/Issu ... m_2009.pdf has the quote: "Although Stebbins (2003) suggests that Green Ratsnakes are strongly arboreal, other workers disagree." The paper went on to show that the tagged snakes in Arizona were strictly non-arboreal. Other papers seems confused on the issue.
Judging Senticollis behavior by what they do in AZ is like judging human behavior by studying the Inuit.
Over most of their range, they are much more common in heavily wooded areas like Tropical Deciduous and Tropical Thorn Forest. I've never found one in a tree, but I've also never found Senticollis away from trees. In fact, if my experience with Senticollis leads me to any conclusion, their diagnostic behavior would be to crawl onto roads where they tend to flatten out in strange positions, often upside down with their guts hanging out.

And besides, tree or no tree, it just is a Senticollis. It looks just like one!
trogonpete
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by trogonpete »

I forgot this dude:
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gretzkyrh4
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by gretzkyrh4 »

Incredible shots of the Imantodes. I second chrish's suggestion for separate post on the image lab regarding your lighting.

Also, thanks for posting the Ungaliophis. I always love getting to see shots of those and they are on my wish list for Central America. Maybe I need to start herping during heavy storms and see if any fall into my lap.

Chris
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Robyn@TRR
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Robyn@TRR »

Love the pics, thanks!

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Matt Cage
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by Matt Cage »

I agree with the Senticolis ID. And, I found one in Costa Rica on the Caribbean side perched 25 feet up a tree at night, so they are at least semi-arboreal. That Ungaliophis is incredible!
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CCarille
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by CCarille »

Love the third and last pics of the I. inornatus! Would like them on my wall. Beautiful! Some really great finds - the Ungaliophis is something special!
Great feeding shot of the Leptodiera! It looks like your Corallus has a frog in its stomach as well.

Good news too... your common Sibon nebulatus appears to actually be the rarer Sibon longifrenis.
trogonpete
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Re: Costa Rica/Nicaragua June 2012.

Post by trogonpete »

CCarille wrote:Love the third and last pics of the I. inornatus! Would like them on my wall. Beautiful! Some really great finds - the Ungaliophis is something special!
Great feeding shot of the Leptodiera! It looks like your Corallus has a frog in its stomach as well.
Thanks! The Ungaliophis was just dumb luck, but I'll take it.

I sell prints [basically at-cost] if you're interested in that wall print :o)
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